Hoffpauir, James Ivy

1/1/1925

JAMES IVY HOFFPAUIR1857 - 1925

The intrinsic worth of a well-spent life can be measured by its service to God and man. The beauty and glory of these, the chosen men, who have, dedicated their life to such service, cannot be measured by earthly standards. For this measure is in keeping of the Lord of life. Surely he will reward his servants, even as their faith has crystallized in holy living and useful purpose. James Ivy Hoffpauir was one of the many whom the Lord called to eternal life and the ministry of his Word.
He was born at the old homestead in the village of Indian Bayou, Vermilion Parish, in 1857, and was the youngest son of Isaac and Louisa Hoffpauir. The days of his boyhood and youth were spent in the open reaches of the Attakapas in the saddle, and in the usual avoca-tions of the young men of his day, but shaped and fashioned by the wholesome influence of a godly parentage, and by the ministry of the pioneer preachers who traveled the country circuits. As a boy he, served as scout and messenger for the men of his community during the troublous period of reconstruction of civil affairs in Louisiana. Being of slight build no one paid particular attention to the boy mounted on his pony who bore messages between the lines.
He was admitted on trial into the Louisiana Conference in 1886 and appointed to the Jennings and Kimball Chapel Charge. He followed the usual course of a Methodist traveling preacher through the Conference courses and ordinations, and received the following appointments: Ada, 1887-88-89; Evergreen, 1890; Presiding Elder Alexandria District, 1891-92; Lecompte, 1893; Lecompte and White Chapel, 1894; Boyce and Colfax, 1895-96-97; Amite City, 1898; St. Helena, 1899-1900; Kentwood, 1901; Mer Rouge, 1902; Franklin, 1903-04-05-06; Gueydan, 1907; Abbeville, 1908-09-10; Eunice, 1911-12; Indian Bayou, 1913; Presiding Elder Lafayette District, 1914-15-16; Abbeville, 1917; Gueydan, 1918; Kaplan and Estherwood, 1919. During the year 1920, owing to iii health, he was granted the supernumerary relation, but resumed active labor the following year and served as follows: Eunice, 1922-23-24-25. He was just entering upon his ministry of 1925 when the call came to a larger and more enduring worship with the saints above.
This brief sketch is but a brief outline of our loved friend and teacher. His spiritual life and
experience of divine things were deeper and clearer in the later years of his ministry.
As a preacher he was fluent, earnest and forceful. Men listened with pleasure and profit to
his sermons. He was well versed in the doc-trines of our church and rejoiced in her wide sweeping message of free grace and full salvation. He has joined the innumerable company gone before, and in that eternal home